Elephant garlic

[mrbadexample]

Hi all,

I dug up my elephant garlic because it was flowering.

It looks like this:

I guess I've dug it up too early?

What should I do with it?

Ta. MBE

[veggiechicken]

Replant it??
Mine's flowering too. Some I haven't dug up since last year as I want to see how they multiply - and I want to try growing them from seed/bulbils too.

[Jay-ell]

I'm constantly digging mine up. Dug some up from the Broad beans today. A mono bulb about the size of a regular garlic head with two baby corns.

I think I have some in the pumpkin bed as well.

Haven't planted elephant garlic in either bed.

Those little baby corms often fall off when you lift them - they can remain dormant for 2 years or more.
I'm so growing a perennial patch which are throwing up flowers - I'll probably shave these later on. Plan is to either dig up and replant older plants in the autumn to form heads or take them as needed.

The autumn planted garlic has flowered now - pulled them off today. Now I'll wait a week or three so that it can focus on building up the bulb.

You could keep the bulbs as seed stock for next year - mono bulbs should turn into decent sized heads, the corms I'd put into a pot and transplant as they grow. They'll form mono bulbs (with corms) which the following year produces cloves

[mrbadexample]

Replant it??

Is it worth it, do you think?

[veggiechicken]

No idea - I just do these things because it feels right at the time.

[mrbadexample]

Those little baby corms often fall off when you lift them - they can remain dormant for 2 years or more.

You could keep the bulbs as seed stock for next year - mono bulbs should turn into decent sized heads, the corms I'd put into a pot and transplant as they grow. They'll form mono bulbs (with corms) which the following year produces cloves

Ok, let me try to get my head round this - I've not grown any garlic before.

The little things are corms and they can be planted and will give a mono bulb?

The big thing is a mono bulb which can also be planted and will give cloves?

Have I understood that right?

When do I plant what please?

[Jay-ell]

Ok, let me try to get my head round this - I've not grown any garlic before.

The little things are corms and they can be planted and will give a mono bulb?

The big thing is a mono bulb which can also be planted and will give cloves?

Have I understood that right?

When do I plant what please?

I started off with half a dozen Elephant Garlic cloves about 4 years ago and now have several pots and buckets with little ones growing, a thriving perennial patch that's growing and abut 30ish plants in the winter allium beds - not to mention the sneaky ones that pop up in the beds that had them 2 or three years ago.

Usually you plant a clove of Elephant Garlic and that clove will grow into a large head and split into 4 or so large cloves, however there are times when it will just put on weight and you'll be left with a large mono bulb instead. This can be because it was a small clove, winter weather not right, too dry, or sometimes just because (I've had large cloves turn to mono bulbs in the midst of others turning into heads) but in general the cloves usually turn into heads.

As well as producing the bulb, the plant has another survival strategy which is to produce the corms (not real corms but called that to distinguish them from the main bulb) - these form at the base of the main bulb or just under the skin. Some of these drop off when the plant is pulled up and lie dormant. When they do grow their first year they will produce a small monobulb. In their second year this may make a larger monobulb or possible a small head with 4 cloves. I'd pop them into a pot now rather than the bed as it can take a couple of years till they wake up, if they harden then they seem to stay in dormancy longer, if fresh they may start growing this year.

When you have a large monobulb and replant that in the autumn (I aim for September, but sometimes hit Feb - although this late will promote smaller bulbs) they are larger than the average clove and tend to produce a decent head with 4 cloves ish.

I hope that hasn't confused you - no? Good. This might. Please don't read further if your head is already hurting.


It's a leek.

And being a leek if you let it produce flowers you can shave it and it ill produce lots of little baby plants where it's flowers were. These little baby plants can be taken off the plant in November and potted up in the greenhouse. It takes a few years for them to get to maturity but if you want to build a larger stock and don't mind waiting then it's a way to increase your numbers (although you do get smaller bulbs, they still split and grow back next year)

(to shave a leek wait till the flower head is open then cut off each single flower in the head so that you wnt up with a pompom of just the flower stalks. after a couple of months the plant will start sending out "grass" or "pips" which are tiny clones of itself situated in between the flower stalks)

Also, as it's a leek you can bury it 6" deep and when it has a nice set of flags dig down and sever the stem an inch or so above the bulb. You have a leek to eat and the bulb grows back - although smaller and you're going to have to dig a bit deeper at harvest time. I wouldn't recommend letting a plant you've harvested flower - although I have done this with a Babington lek which still split and grew back.